"The target, a star eight light-years away, is ready to go. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

After Zhou Xin's order was given, the command cabin became even busier, and the researchers continued to report the status of the Voyager, and the warp engine was slowly being recharged.

Soon after, the warp engine was finally fully charged, so Zhou Xin gave the order to set off, this time the researchers were obviously much more proficient, and it didn't take long for the Voyager to disappear in the normal universe, and they left the planet where they had been staying for more than half a year.

In the next half year or so, Zhou Xin and the others were not as boring as the last long-distance flight, they were busy analyzing various samples collected from the previous planet, although they were very busy, but Zhou Xin felt very fulfilling, and at the same time, he also obtained a lot of valuable information. Now, the analysis of the sample has basically been completed, and the rest is some experiments that require long-term observation, which will not be completed for a while, so after more than half a year of busyness, Zhou Xin finally became idle.

However, there are still about four months to go before he reaches the target location, but Zhou Xin doesn't want to play mahjong or other games with the lucky Ralph, so he has to accompany Xiaobai to play in the ecological cabin every day, and occasionally go to the command cabin to check the flight status of the Voyager. This boredom lasted for about two months.

On this day, Zhou Xin sat in the command cabin, and today it was time for the routine inspection of the warp engine, every time at this time, Zhou Xin would always sit in the command cabin and look at the starry sky that had not been seen for a long time, but today's starry sky seemed to be a little strange, Zhou Xin seemed to see a basketball-sized black shadow blocked in front of the camera, at first Zhou Xin thought that there was a problem with the external detector of the Voyager, but after changing the detector to observe the same place, Zhou Xin still saw the black shadow, about this, Zhou Xin felt a little curious. So, he asked Voyager to send a probe to the Shadow Out to investigate.

Just when the warp engine was about to complete the inspection, the probe sent back a report that the black shadow was actually a wandering planet, which aroused the curiosity of Zhou Xin, who had been bored for more than two months, so he ordered to stop moving for the time being and fly to the wandering planet to find out.

Not long after the ship turned, Spred came to the command cabin, and he had just entered through the door and asked anxiously, "Why haven't you started the warp engine yet, what is wrong?" ”

"No, no." Zhou Xin replied a little embarrassed, "The warp engine has just finished checking, there is no problem, it's just that I found something worth caring about nearby and wanted to go over and take a look." Then, Zhou Xin told Spred the news of the discovery of the wandering planet.

Spred breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there was no problem with the warp engine, and then he heard that Zhou Xin had found a wandering planet, and he was also curious, so he sat down in his seat to see what this wandering planet really looked like.

Just as Voyager was about to reach the planet, Ralph hurried in from outside, and as soon as he entered, he asked the same question as Spred, and after receiving the same answer, she stayed in high spirits.

At the same time as Zhou Xin answered Ralph's question, the Voyager had already arrived near the planet, but since there was no light source near the planet, only a dark shadow could be seen on the screen. However, by this time, the probe that had arrived earlier had already sent back general information about the planet.

The planet is a small rocky planet, the size of the Moon and Pluto, which seems to have been wandering in the universe for a long time, the surface temperature of the planet is close to absolute zero, there is no gas on the surface of the planet, not even a trace of water. Strangely, the shape of this planet is very close to the standard spherical shape, and there are very few traces of meteorite impact on its surface.

Seeing the appearance of this planet, Zhou Xin and Spred both felt very strange, Zhou Xin said: "This planet is too strange, I haven't seen such a standard spherical planet for a long time, and it is still a rocky planet, and there are no traces of meteorite impacts, so how did this guy get thrown out of the star system?" ”

Spred also shook his head in confusion, and Ralph said boredly: "Cut, I thought it was such an interesting planet, but I didn't expect it to be a bare stone ball, it's really boring." ”

Zhou Xin suddenly cried and laughed, "What else do you want to see on the wandering planet, is it possible that a civilization can emerge." ”

At this point, the probe seems to have reached the surface of the planet, it sends back some data on the planet's surface, and the images taken by the probe appear on the screen. With the help of the detector's light, Zhou Xin and the others saw that the probe seemed to have landed in a very flat place, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of floating dust, which was stirred up high at the moment the probe landed, covering the entire lens, and even the strong light of the probe could not pass through half a minute, but fortunately, there was no air on this planet, and the stirred dust flew around the probe for a while, and then fell back to the ground due to gravity. And that detector, now deep in the dust, has basically lost the ability to move.

Seeing this situation, Zhou Xin had no choice but to let the Voyager continue to launch new probes, and at the same time let the probe on the surface of the planet try to clear a space around the floating dust. After clearing a depth of about two meters, the probe finally stepped on solid ground.

"How is there so much dust, and how is this formed?" Zhou Xin was even more puzzled, "In an environment without air and water, how can so much dust be formed." ”

Spred also shook his head, "And there are no traces of a large number of meteorites on this planet, otherwise it can be speculated that it is dust from the impact of meteorites, and now this-"

But then, the probe sent back a report on the surface rock, which answered Zhou Xin's doubts and said: The surface rock of the planet is rich in silica, and at the same time, a large amount of crystal water has been detected in the rock.

Seeing this report, a word popped up in Zhou Xin's head, "Weathered." Zhou Xin blurted out, "Only weathering can explain the origin of so much dust." ”

"It's unlikely." Spred was a little unconvinced, "Is it possible to form such a thick layer of dust just by weathering?" It is important to know that the process of weathering is very slow, especially in this stable vacuum environment. ”

"Is there any other explanation for that?" Zhou Xin spread his hands, "It's just slow, the most important thing in the universe is time, maybe this planet was formed a long time ago." ”

"Maybe it's dust from somewhere else." Spred took a different view, "It's just that the place where this probe landed is very dusty." ”

"It's not impossible." Zhou Xin nodded, "Then wait for news from other probes." ”

After a while, the previously launched probes arrived on the surface of the planet one after another, but no matter where the probe landed, there was a thick layer of dust on the surface, which directly broke Spred's speculation. However, at this time, several of the probes also made new discoveries, and at the place where they landed, after clearing away the thick dust, they found traces of molten on the rocks on the surface, but unlike on the thunder star, the melting temperature in these places did not seem to be very high, and the glass was mixed with rock debris.

At this time, Voyager reported: "Depending on the composition of the planet and the rate of its weathering in a vacuum, it will take at least 7 billion to 8 billion years for such a thick layer of dust to form." ”

Hearing the Voyager's analysis report, Zhou Xin and they were a little surprised, and Spred said: "So the lifespan of this planet is at least 7 billion years? ”

"Theoretically, unless there is any accident." Voyager replied.

"Let the probe detect the lifespan of the rocks on this planet." Zhou Xin ordered, and after a while, the probe came up with the result: the oldest rocks on the planet are 8.5 billion years old.

"It's an old planet." Zhou Xin sighed, then he thought about it carefully, and said in surprise, "If you count the formation and cooling process of this planet, doesn't it mean that the lifespan of this planet will exceed 10 billion years?" This is almost the first rocky planet to form. At the end, Zhou Xin's tone was tinged with a hint of surprise.

At this time, Spred also reacted, and he also said in surprise: "This is almost double the lifespan of our home star, I didn't expect such a planet to exist." ”

Zhou Xin nodded, "Our luck is really good, if that's the case, this planet is still worth our study." ”

As a result, the planet, which was originally just intended to relax, became an important object of study. It took about a month for Voyager to launch a large number of probes, and Zhou Xin conducted a detailed survey of the planet.

Investigation reports indicate that the planet appears to have been tidally locked by stars, with about one-fifth of the circular surface covered in a large amount of molten rock. There are no obvious traces of craters on the planet's surface, suggesting that the planet was not knocked out of the parent galaxy by an accidental impact. Continuing to probe to the center of the planet, the core of this planet has completely cooled down after a long wandering, of course, this result did not surprise Zhou Xin and them, to their surprise, the core of this star was not in the center of the planet, but to one side. But it was this eccentric core that allowed Voyager to simulate the planet's departure from the star system.

According to Voyager's calculations, the formation of such an eccentric core means that the planet has been pulled by another great force in normal operation, which must be at least the gravitational force of an ordinary star to pull a planet out of its orbit. Then, the reason why this wandering planet left the star is also coming out, it was pulled out of its original orbit by a nearby star during normal operation.

Hearing this result, Zhou Xin and the others were a little surprised, after all, the probability of this kind of thing happening when the two planets are close to each other is also very low, but they didn't expect to be encountered by this planet. So, they had another research project.

On this wandering planet, the Voyager stayed for a month and a half. In the past month and a half, Spred led the researchers to study the planet with great interest, and even Zhou Xin occasionally paid attention to the situation on the planet. Finally, with the help of the probe, they completed the investigation of the planet, and Zhou Xin and they also obtained a lot of first-hand information. Now, it's time to leave.

So, Zhou Xin and the others left the wandering planet and continued to fly towards their goal, so in the next journey, they had one more thing to do - to sort out the information obtained from the wandering planet.

After the researchers finished compiling the data, Voyager approached their destination, the outer star indicated by the Atlanteans.

Not far from the star, Voyager exited warp mode and began to fly at sub-light speed to approach the star, and after about three days of flying at sub-light speed, the equipment on board Voyager was able to directly observe the planets around the star. Soon after, one of the outermost planets of the galaxy was clearly visible to the camera.

When the planet appeared in front of the camera, Zhou Xin and the others felt a little strange, because this planet was much brighter than the other planets they had seen before, although they felt a little strange, but they agreed that this might be the special landscape of this planet. After a few hours, they finally saw the surface of the planet clearly, and the situation on the surface confirmed their previous thoughts, but after seeing the surface of the planet, Zhou Xin and they were still slightly surprised.

On the screen, Zhou Xin and the others saw that the visual part of the planet was covered with a layer of material similar to ice, and it was this "ice" that reflected a lot of light from the stars, making the planet's brightness look much brighter than usual.

"What a beautiful planet." Ralph said in surprise, "What are those white things, ice?" ”

"It's mostly solid gas." Zhou Xin guessed, "The surface of the planet is covered with so much white material, and the possibility of mainly ice is too low, maybe a small amount of ice is mixed in it." ”

Spred looked at another question, "Is this the planet that the Atlanteans are directing us to?" ”

"Probably not." Zhou Xin said, "A planet so far away from the star, the surface environment must be very harsh, what are they guiding us to do in such a place?" ”

So, with these questions in mind, Voyager continued to fly towards the planet......